When The Whales Sing
by celestial kitten16
Summary: He had thought Bella Swan deserved whatever she got for being so stupid as to love a leach, but not this, no one deserved this. Finding her chewed and torn up like some mountain's lions chew toy after being left out in the woods, Paul and Sam make it just in time to rescue her and save her life. But for Paul and Bella it was only the beginning of their crazy love story.
1. Chapter 1

_**If you recognize the name or this story itself it's because I had once posted it on another one of my accounts but deleted it while I was fixing it up and changing some things. I now transferred it to this account.**_

_**This is in Paul POV.**_

**Paul**

The first time I saw Bella Swan, she was a little girl of ten years old and I was eleven.

I still remember how her pigtails blew behind her in the wind as she stared out at the sea with awe in her eyes, giggling when ever she spotted a whale come up from the water, binoculars hanging around her neck so she could see them better. She had a round, chubby face and her skin was as white as milk. She was all gangling limbs and big eyes.

I remember being really mad then too. Just a month before, a massive storm had hit La Push, and with it a flood that took both of my parents lives. After that my Aunt and Uncle had adopted me, but I was always mad, and always had to be moving. I could never keep still and everything made me angry. Including her. I was mad that she looked so happy despite the debris that still lingered on the beach, or the fact that the whales she was watching had lost family as well, the body of their young washing up on shore because they were too weak to fight the waves and current of the ocean during the storm.

She was an ignorant outsider who didn't belong on the reservation. And I couldn't stand to see her smiling when the rest of us had lost so much. But the more I looked at her, the more she seemed like she did belong. With the wind of the sea blowing through her hair, her toes in the sand, and the sun making her pale skin glow it was as if she seemed to have grown up from the very beach itself. And I hated her, for no reason, and for every reason, I hated her. So I marched across the beach from behind her and pushed her in to the water.

"Ow, what did you do that for you big jerk?" She whined, turning in the shallow to sit on her back and stare up at me, salt water soaking her clothes and dripping down from her hair as her bottom lip trembled and tears gathered in her eyes.

"Your a pale face, you don't belong here. Go home ugly!" I remembering her starting to cry, her chocolate brown eyes big and sad from my insult, but I couldn't care. I was too angry to care about anything. Always angry.

"DADDY!" she started to cry loudly, sobbing as I stood over her with shaking hands at my side balled into fists. Huffing and puffing I ran at her cry for help, never looking back to the girl with eyes like Bambi and the name of a bird.

Eight years later I'm searching for that same girl I had pushed in to the sea at First Beach. And I still hated her. I hated her for being able to smile that day at the beach, and I hate that she had been dating a blood sucking leach. After years of never even speaking to the girl since that sunny day eight years ago, I could still hate her without even knowing her. But dating a leach, while knowing what they were, it disgusted and infuriated me. She deserved what she got. But it was our job as protectors to make sure that fucking leach didn't hurt her. That he didn't bite her or kill her.

Then their was a scream, a loud agonizing, pained scream that never seemed to end. It echoed through the entire forest and loud enough that I was sure Charlie Swan could hear it back at his house. We phased then, the three of us reacting to the sound. _Protect. _Our wolves screamed as we entered in to our second skin.

_Do you smell her, Sam? Do you smell the fucking Leach? Is he with her? We can kill him right? _It was Jared who was snarling, his instincts going wild, spreading to both I and Sam as we snapped our muzzles, ready to bite and tear apart the vampire that dared to lay harm to a human.

_His scent leads away from hers. But their something else with her, an animal_ there was a pause and I was sure that Sam was taking a sniff of the air, trying to identify the animal. _It's a mountain lion! Shit and I smell blood too!_

Through Sam's eyes, I watched as his paws pounded the earth, pushing himself forward at top speed to reach Bella. He was the closest. Jared and I had fallen behind and separated in different directions to try and expand the search. As I ran towards Sam I continued to watch through his eyes, listening and seeing his thoughts as if I had a fucking choice in the matter. One of the downsides of being what we were. No fucking privacy. And then, just as we heard her scream at the same time, we saw her.

She was on her back in a thick pool of her own blood, her hands over her head trying to protect what part of her body she could. The lion was on top of her, it's claws cutting across her back over and over again like she was it's own fucking scratching post while it was chewing on her shoulder. She was letting out these terrible, ear piercing screams until she was choking and starting to cough blood and all Sam could do was watch frozen, thinking of Emily and all the blood soaking in to the earth the day he had phased to close and left her scared.

_DAMN IT, SAM, GET IT OFF OF HER, IT'S KILLING HER! _I roared at him, moving faster to where he was.

Sam pounced, easily over powering the mountain lion and knocking it off of Bella, being careful not to step on her. He put one large paw down on the lion, and with a howl put all of his wait down on it, crushing it's ribs and breaking it's neck and spine. I managed to arrive just after he killed the cat, quickly phasing back to a man and running over to the leach lovers side.  
Her clothes were destroyed, nothing but strips of cloth dangling from her body. Even for a gore and horror movie fanatic as me, this was almost too much for me to take. But I had to keep my calm, I had to get her to a hospital. I tried to remember if their was an ambulance at Chief Swan's place waiting. No. There wasn't. I remembered. We would have to run her straight to a hospital.

"What the hell are you doing, Paul?" I looked up and glared at my friend and alpha.

"I'm picking her up. We cant wait to get help, they wont get hear fast enough even if we send Jared. The best chance of saving her life is to take her to the hospital from here our selves" I tell him, leaning down and gently turning Bella over.

"Fuck!" I curse. The lion didn't just get her back, it fucking tore her up in the front, and by some bit of luck it didn't get her face, though she did have scars going down her neck. We had to hurry. We couldn't be sure with all this blood it didn't get a fucking artery. As I started to pick Bella up I just realized that I didn't have my shorts.

"Sam, you'll have to take her I don't have shorts and the last thing we need is someone calling the cops on my nude ass for thinking I'm some psycho that did this to her" I tell him, stepping back from Bella's body, her eyes shut and face twisted in agony as Sam picks her up.

"It hurts!" She screamed, her body arching in Sam's arms. What little's left of her clothes falls open to reveal her bloody, nude body. Under any other circumstance I might have taken the chance to admire it. She was still as pale and skinny as she was when she was a kid, only now she had the feminine curves of an adult. she had a slim waist that dipped and curved pleasantly around her flat stomach, and her breasts were small but perky . It would have been a much more pleasing sight if it's wasn't the blood and open wounds crossing her torso.

"I know, Bella, but you have to stay strong and try to stay still for me or it'll only be worse." Sam tells her, and I watch him wince as her blood continues to seep from her body to stain his own skin red. She's not making it easy on either of them with her thrashing. Her face is still contorted in pain, her eyes twisted shut with big, salty tears falling from the corners of them. I never liked her, and had no shame in saying that I hated the leach lover. But this...I never wanted her to get hurt like this. This was something she would live with her entire life, just like Emily, but I had a feeling Bella wouldn't take to it as well as Emily had. At least Emily had Sam, even if he had been the one who had hurt her, who caused her scars. But she still had someone by her side to get her through.

Bella...Bella only had her father now. And in all honesty I wasn't sure how much help he was really going to be.

The last I heard from Swan was two garbled words that sounded a lot like- "He's gone."

I nearly phased.  
How could she just go through being attacked by a mountain lion and still think about the fucking leach? Did he take her sanity and all sense with him when he left her?

"I'm going to find, Jared, we'll go and tell Charlie that we found his girl and you headed for the hospital. We'll meet you there after." Giving me a nod Sam turned and ran off, Bella screaming in his arms from the pain her body was currently in.

I might not like the girl, but I hoped she was enough of a fighter to pull through this and live.

**TBC**

_**So, i the first half of this story will be in Paul's first person perspective, and then for the second half it will be in Bella's. **_

_**I know the chapter is short, and they might be for awhile, but if you like this chapter then please let me know via reviews, I always look forward to feedback from my readers.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**I know this is a pretty quick update since the last chapter, but it's only because I'm already up to chapter 4, but until I get to chapter six you have to wait a little while for chapter 3. I'm trying to keep ahead that's way I wont really have to make you guys wait too long and can update regularly.  
For those of you who have reveiwed I want to say a big thank you to you guys, and to those who have decided to follow this story I hope that the chapters to come meet your standards and are worth your while, I am certaintly making the effort to do so.**_

**Paul**

By the time we got to the hospital with Charlie, Billy and Jacob, Sam told us that Bella was already in surgery. He sat there in the waiting area, his head in his hands, a light tremble was in his shoulders, but it wasn't because he was about to phase. Jared and I knew that he felt guilty for not getting to Bella in time. What he saw, what we all saw would forever be imprinted in our minds, haunting us.

"Sam, go home, be with Emily. Jared and I will take shifts here and call you to let you know when she gets out of surgery and how she is. Don't torture yourself over this." I sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder. I was tired and aggravated, the atmosphere was depressing as it was without Sam's damn self loathing. He didn't need anything else added on to his plate after Emily.

He looked at me unsure, a faint trail of dried tears going down his face. I pretended not to see them and rolled my eyes. He had such little faith in me sometimes it was insulting.

"I'll keep a lid on my temper. I doubt there is anything in this hospital besides you that will piss me off enough to phase" I told him, reclining back in the cold plastic chair. Running a hand over my short hair I sighed.

"I know how you feel about Bella, I don't want to take the chance-"

"Fuck, Sam, have some god damn faith in me. Sure I hate the leach lover, but I think she's had it bad enough. I'm not going to do anything to her in a god damn hospital!" I said, my hands gripping my knees so hard my knuckles began to turn white. Remarkably I kept myself under control, not giving a single shudder or shake of fury.

"Are you sure you can handle it?" he asked me, clearly uncertain about leaving me alone with her.

"Yes, oh mighty Alpha, I can handle it." again, I rolled my eyes at Sam's lack of trust in me.

He stared at me for a long while before finally giving a sigh of defeat and stood up from his seat, running a hand down his face. He looked tired and I knew seeing Bella all bloody and cut up brought some pretty shitty memories up about when he hurt Emily.

"Alright. I'll go. I'll leave it to you and Jared to decide what shifts you take and call me to let me know about any updates on Bella." he says before walking over to Charlie, who was sitting closest to the operating area so they wouldn't have to search for him.

He hadn't spoken, just sat, pulling at his hair and crying. I had met the Chief of Police before, and half of the time's I met him I was in the back of his cruiser for one thing or another. That was before I phased and Sam forced me to get my act together. It also kind of helped finding out that because of our unnaturally high body heat alcohol burned right out of our system, so we couldn't get drunk. It took away almost all of my fun, and lessened my chances of doing some dumb shit under the influence. Though I still messed around with girls. Being a werewolf actually increased my chances of getting laid after the growth spurt and instant abs.

"I hope you don't mind, Charlie, but I'm going to head home. The boys will stay here and let me know how the surgery went, and I'll be back tomorrow...I'm sorry I couldn't get to her sooner." Charlie just nods and keeps his head down with his fingers in his hair.

"You did what you could, Sam, without you that girl might not even be alive right now. We'll be ok for tonight, I know Charlie can't say it right now, so I will. Thank you" Billy told him, and Sam gave a solemn nod.

I know the situation was dire, but fuck was he depressing. Sam was always so stiff, he barely ever relaxed and it showed. But then again, he had the most responsibility on his shoulders and didn't have much time to relax. Sometimes I forgot, and now I felt like shit. No matter how much we split up the work and patrols, we never even had time to rest anymore. I never even got to finish high school, by the time I phased it was my senior year and I was too volatile to take the chance of going back and not getting upset by a teacher or someone else and phasing. If I thought my uncle and aunt were disappointed in me before from my fighting and drinking, then they were heart broken when I dropped out of school.

Jared and I both said quick goodbyes to Sam before watching his back as he left. When I looked back up at Jared across of me I noticed for the first time how pale he had become. Seeing that much blood come out of such a little thing like Swan could mess any one up.

"There was so much damn blood, even more than Emily. Oh god, Paul" he mumbled under his breath so that Charlie wouldn't hear.

"Go home, Jared, I'll stay the night and you can take my place in the morning. It's obvious you and Sam are in no shape to stay." Jared looked up at me with surprised wide eyes before his brows furrowed with confusion.

"How can you be so calm. You were there, you saw her up close yourself. How can you not be bothered by it at all? Doesn't it bother you?" I looked at his sharply, glaring at him.

"Of course it does. I'm pissed that leach left her out there, I'm pissed that we couldn't get to her sooner, that we couldn't protect her. I still have her blood on my hands, and that's all I seem to be able to see. Red, blood red, everywhere. Her screams still echo in my ears. But if I don't try to push it back, try to not let it bother me as much as it does I'll end up phasing right here in the hospital." I said, feeling my chest rumble with a growl fighting to escape.

"Then maybe I should stay instead." he offered and I shook my head.

"I'll be fine" I grumbled, annoyed that now even Jared was doubting my control. "I can handle it."

"All right, bro, I trust you. Take care of yourself and I'll see you later" he tells me, patting me on the shoulder before making his exit.

Reclining in the seat, my long legs stretched out in front of me, I tilt my head back and look up at the white ceiling. Maybe if I stare at it long enough the red that haunts my sight will start to fade away. To keep my temper under control until my aggression passed I took deep and even breaths. I tried to get my head around the fact an animal had done this to Swan and not a vampire. Was he trying to kill her off without biting her? Is that why he left her out there? That way he wouldn't technically b breaking the treaty. The more I thought about it, the more tired I seem to become until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

I wasn't sure how long I had fallen asleep, but when I did it was right in time as the doctor came out to talk to Charlie, I would have to wait and listen to know if he was just updating him on her condition or if the surgery was over. It turned out to be the latter.  
"Her heart stopped beating for two minutes during the surgery do to a punctured lung and suffocation from her partially severed larynx and trachea. We were able to clear open her throat and resuscitate her successfully. She is now stable." Charlie gave a shuddering breath, tears streaming down his face.

"Her injuries were immense and along with her leg, two of her ribs were fractured and another three broken on the same side. The damage done to her back reached to her muscle, damaging some nerves." the Doctor continued to say.

Fuck, this girl was just a complete mess. My fists balled and my body started to shake as I breathed through my teeth as I continued to listen. What else could be wrong with her?

"She also received deep cuts from the lions claws across the throat, we were able to repair what we could of her larynx and vocal chords. It will be a long time until she can speak again, if ever. But we can increase the chances with speech therapy. It's a miracle that the claws didn't nick the arteries in her neck." I wanted to punch a wall. She won't be able to talk. She'll be a mute? This is all so wrong, so unfair. The doctor seemed to stop, letting Charlie absorb what he already said before continuing.

"She'll also need a heavy amount of physical therapy. Her lacerations are severe and she will have scars for the rest of her life. We're going to take a few x-rays and then we'll set her up in a room. You'll be able to see her very soon." Charlie nodded, thanking the doctor before he walked back in to the E.R.  
"She's strong, Charlie, and you heard the doctor. She's stable. She'll get through this, and so will you." Billy told him patting his back.

Getting up, I went to find a phone to call Sam and Jared to update them on Swan. After I had finished the call with Sam I left the hospital to phase and go on a run to blow off steam and destroy some shit. I was proud of myself for holding it in at least this long. Once I had finished I went back to the hospital, keeping watch over both Charlie and Swan until It was Jared's turn.

Not even a full day after the surgery, Swans mother showed up just when the doctor announced that she had fallen in to a coma. She could wake up in a few days, weeks or maybe next year. Charlie and Renee barely left her side, and they also barely stopped arguing. Renee wanted to transfer Swan to a hospital in Florida and Charlie wasn't having it.

He had taken vacation time off to be with his daughter, and he blamed himself for letting Swan fall in so deep with the leach. He had missed so much of his own daughters life, that when she needed him now the most, he was not letting her be stolen away from him again.

Swan's room was filled with flowers, balloons and get well cards from her friends from school. Three of them visited frequently. A nice girl named Angela, a bitchy girl named Jessica, and some douche-bag named Mike. But the fact is they were all there, using there free time and weekends to come and visit her and that said something about them.

Sam, Jared and I took turns visiting her as well, feeling a sense of obligation to watch after her since we didn't get to her in time. If we had, she wouldn't be in the hospital in the first place, but it wasn't completely out fault either. That leach should never have taken her so far in to the forest and she should have had good enough sense not to follow him without knowing for certain how to get back home. If the leach ever came back, I would kill him myself. He may not have bitten her, but he he was still at fault for her injuries.

Two weeks passed and there was still no change in Swan's condition. She laid there in her hospital bed like a mummified sleeping beauty, wrapped in gauze every where and her leg in a cast with a tube down her throat to help her breath while her trachea and larynx healed. The heart monitor beeped, even and in time.

Whenever I saw her I couldn't decide if I should be pissed at her for bringing this on herself by associating and dating a leach, or pity her. Today was my turn to stay with her. Charlie had been staying with Billy while Swan was in the hospital, unable to go home knowing his daughter wasn't going to be there. The poor guy was an absolute mess from what I heard. I think any parent would be.

Entering Swan's hospital room I went straight to the chair near her bed, dropping myself in to the seat and propping my feet on the edge of the bed and turned on the television in the top corner of the room. Not like she was watching it herself. Awesome, there was a Harry Potter marathon on. I don't care what any one said Harry Potter was the shit. I don't think there is a person within my generation who doesn't like Harry Potter, even on the Rez. It's the only book series that I've ever read. I have all the books and movies at home. I was a proud fan.

I didn't even realize until half way through the second film that I had stretched out my arm to rest my wrist on the bed, my fingers twiddling with a lock of Swans hair. The moment I became conscious of what I was doing I snatched my hand back as if her hair had caught fire. Taking my hand back I flexed my fingers. There was a pleasant ache in the joints of my knuckles and my finger tips tingled. What the hell?

Cracking my knuckles, I dropped my hand back down to my lap, my fingers still tingling. It felt like electricity was running through my bones and muscles up my arm, tensing and relaxing, over and over again. I suddenly felt fidgety, restless and anxious as if there was a part of me waiting for something with expectation. What it was waiting for I had no idea.

Another week passed and I was switching shifts with Sam when Swan started to choke. She was waking up, the tube in her throat setting off her gag reflex as she started to wake. Sam pressed the button to call a nurse and leaned over Bella, taking her face in his hands and forcing her to look at him. "Bella, you have to calm down. Your throat was injured, you needed the tube to breath. You'll choke if you don't calm down." he told her, smoothing back her hair. "Shh, that it. Your ok, your safe, shh" he calmed her down, guilt in his eyes as he tried to keep himself calm and comforting. Her eyes shifted in her skull, looking around wildly, and then they fell on me and stayed there.

Warm brown eyes stared into my own dull gray. The entire room, the world, it all started to fade to black accept her. she was the only light that I could see. Everything I care about, my parents, the pack, it all fades away and she's the only thing I care about anymore. Gravity shifts, and the steal cables attaching me to her is the only thing keeping me from drifting in to oblivion. I'm grounded by her very soul and I feel a fire run through me, melting my bones until I'm nothing but jelly and fall to my knee's by the side of the bed. I stay that way, on my knee's just looking in to the endless depths of her eyes that I swear hold the entire universe in them. I saw everything that could be with her, what it would be like, what it would mean. Brother, friend, lover. What ever she wanted I would be, I was hers. It wasn't until the doctors and nurses rush in to the room did I return to reality.

"Paul, did you just-" I run before Sam can even say the fucking word.

I couldn't believe this. Why her? Why, why, why, why? This is so fucked up. I didn't want this! This wasn't right. It couldn't be right. The spirits fucked up on this one.

I ran from the hospital, making a bee line straight for the forest. The moment I was in the thicket I phased. I cursed when I found being a wolf only made it fucking worse. All I could see was her, I snarled as I ran. She was the only thing my minds eye could register. All I saw was her, in the past, the present and the future. I remembered when she lay cold and covered in blood on the forest floor, when I touched her hair and it set me on fire, when she looked in to my eyes. I saw her on the beach, with the sun on her skin and salty air blowing through her hair, smiling shyly at me. I saw and heard what I imagined her laugh as she ran from me in the forest, chasing her as a wolf, holding her hand, kissing her. I howled, and phased back, gripping my head in my hands. I didn't want to see, I didn't want her. Not the leach lover who called out for the prick who left her as she lay dying, who's heart had stopped beating because he had left her. I didn't want to think about her. I didn't want to _want _her. My choice, my _life_ had been stolen and tied to hers now.

But I would fight it, to retain my free will, I would fight the imprint. No one decided my fate but me. It was my soul to give away. The spirits may have given away the soul of my wolf, but they hadn't touched that of the man.

"Paul." I heard Sam come up behind me, no doubt having ran after me to make sure I was ok.

"Before you ask, no I am not ok. This fucking sucks, and I'm not going to accept it. I'll fight this!" I told him and I listened as he sighed.

"You think you can fight harder than I did? Because I fought tooth and nail against mine, but in the end, her soul will always call to yours. Haunting you until you give in because you know you'll be happy with her, because she balances you and that's what we need. Balance." of course he would fucking know. After he imprinted on Emily he researched everything about imprinting, trying to find a way to break it.

"You don't love her now, but you will. It wont take long, Paul, and it's easier to just open your arms to it. It might be better for the _both _of you if you do." I heard him drop what I imagined was a pair of shorts and a shirt since I just destroyed the clothes I had been wearing and walked away, giving me space and time to think.

I needed to clear my head and take out my frustrations, but as a human. And that meant there was only one place for me to go to do that. A-Ka-Lat. Also known as James Island.

The island was the resting place of the previous chiefs of our tribe, the island and land having been passed down to current chief; Billy Black. Their was a dip in the island separating the larger, horse shoe part of the island from the hill top that was the resting place of the chiefs. Once, long, long ago, their used to be a village on top of the island, a fortress. It was our tribes greatest defense against raids from the Makah's who would paddle down from Neah Bay. It was then after used for a garden in growing potatoes and other root crops. It's also a place believed to hold grate spiritual power.

When I was fifteen and before I phased, I had gotten drunk and by some unexplainable means woke up on the island the next morning alone. I remember finding bits of remains from the previous village that once stood so proudly, and an idea had come to me. Picking up a stick I drew in the ground a design for a house. The next day, I borrowed some of my dads equipment, and went back to the island, cutting down some tree's for space to make the house and for lumber to build it.

The place called to me, it felt like home and gave me a sense of peace that I hadn't felt in a very long time. I worked and worked, and than the day came when Sam phased and appeared at my haven. Billy had told him that the island was his to go to for peace and solitude. Where he could escape from their duties as the tribes protector and just be _men. _The invitation was opened to all wolves. When Sam found me, sawing away he said nothing at first, instead he picked up a piece of wood, a hammer and nail, and started to help. I didn't stop him. At seventeen I phased and joined Sam, creating a pack of two. Barely a year later Jared followed. After five years, and the joint effort of the three of us the house was nearly done. The biggest issue was the plumbing and electricity. There were permits that we needed to get and with the help of the tribe things that we couldn't pay out of our pocket was taken care of through the council. They thought that it was good for the pack to have a place to go to relax on their days off. Healthy for us. Other than the pack, the island was closed off from everyone else.

Most of the furniture was made Sam, and we had a few old sofa's and mattresses that were donated. And we kept it stocked with non perishable foods for when we were hungry. A few windows needed to be put in and then it was done. Sam had started working on a second house already, told us it was a good way to get out our aggression without having to phase. After all, their was enough room for a small village on the island, so a few more houses would fit next door no problem. The house he was currently working on was for his Imprint Emily. They had a house of course of the main land, so now anything we built was more or less for recreational purposes. It was like our own private paradise. If we kept it up, we could make our own vacation spot. There was even a beach on the island. Sam and Billy had the hope that one day we could make it a place for our children to come to, and a place for the next pack to find homage.

I pulled on the clothes that Sam had left me and made my way back to the hospital to get my truck. As I got back to the hospital I could feel the pull to go in, to be with her, but I fought it and drove away. I needed time to think more about this.

**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

**_So, I'm updating this sooner than I thought I would. Right now I'm in Philadelphia for three weeks training for my job, so that means I'm stuck in a hotel room for the week until I go back home for my weekend before having to come back again. It's complicated. Either way I'm almost done with chapter six, but I have to spend all my time now studying in my spare time so that I can keep my job and pass training, which means I won't be righting a lot so it'll take awhile until the next chapter. I'll try to update again Friday, but like I said, i have to focus on my job right now._**

**_On another note, thank you everyone for your wonderful reviews, following and favorite this story. I'm glad so many people like this idea. I really wanted to try something different, and I really like the idea of Bella having a permanent physical injury she has to adapt and accept. I think only something of such magnitude could really change her and make her face reality, and what I love about Paul is he's all about the cruel reality of the world and trying to make the best of it and spitting the shit that's thrown at him right back. The two can teach each other so much with time._**

**_Either way I'm really enjoying righting a character like Paul, especially doing so in his own perspective. It's a different and fun experience for me. I just hope you like my portrayal as much as I do. _**

**Paul**

I had been on the island for three days before I heard Sam's howl signaling for me to come back. I did so begrudgingly.

Staying away had been the hardest thing I have ever endured. It was like a hole had been punched in my chest and I had to constantly stop what I was doing to catch my breath. Even as I worked, all I could see was her weathered face and her damn eyes. She was like some god damn ghost haunting me. It hurt being away, and I tried not to imagine what I might be doing to her. Emily had never told Sam what it was like for her when he was fighting the imprint. It's what got him so mad that he phased and hurt her. But the scars Emily has are nothing compared to the ones that Swan would have.

"Go to the hospital, see her." Sam said, waiting for me at the dock as I pulled the boat in.

"What's happened? Is she ok!" I asked panicked, the instincts of the imprint coming to the surface as I jumped out of the boat. Most of the time I could just walk across the sandbar when the tide was low, but the other half of the time we could usually canoe over. We used the bigger boat when we were bringing supplies across to the island.

"She's awake, but she's not doing so good. You need to go to her, you might be the only one who can help her." he tells me and I give a sigh of relief.

"I don't get it. What's wrong with her besides the obvious?" I ask him. I needed more detail. I had resisted the urge to call and find out, but now it was too much. "Tell me how she is. How she's been"

"The doctor took her breathing and feeding tube out. Her throat is healed enough that she can eat soft food, mostly smoothy type drinks but she's refusing to eat. She just lies there, the only difference from when she was in her coma is that her eyes are open now." he tells me and I shudder at the image that comes in to my head.

"She's no better than a vegetable, it's terrible. I've never see anyone so...so broken...as her. She needs you, Paul" he says to me, sounding close to desperate while his eyes plead with me. I know he doesn't want to make it an alpha order, that he wants me to come on my own free will and in the end that is what I do.

When I see her, she's just as bad as Sam says, but it hits me like two tons of bricks coming down on my head. She lying there just like all the other times, a few little splotches of blood here and there seeping through her bandages. Her chest rises and falls with her breathing, deep and even as her brown eyes stare up at the ceiling, lifeless and cold. Her body is the same. Frigid and stiff, holding little warmth. It reminds me of a vampire and a growl rumbles through me before Sam puts a hand on my shoulder.

"What do I do?" I ask, helpless as to where to go now that I am here.

"Just sit with her, Paul, maybe hold her hand and give her a little warmth." Sam suggests.

With a deep breath I take his advice, moving across the room, taking the seat beside her bed and with trembling hands I slip my fingers under her palm. I start to feel that ache again in my bones, my knuckles throbbing with a pleasurable sensation. I put my other hand over hers so that her thin, bony white hand is sandwiched between my calloused tan ones. She's white as milk against my skin and my mouth suddenly feels very dry while my eyes start to water.

"How can I feel this sad, this lonely, when I don't even _know _her?" I ask him, my voice starting to crack and I just wish that she would turn her head and look at me.

"Because your soul knows her. She is your equal in spiritual likeness, two parts of one whole. You just need to take the time to let the _man _get to know her, let the person you are find the similarities and balance." he tells me, wise as ever.

"Sadly for you, it's going to take a very long time, and a lot of support before you can get anywhere. The fact remains, Paul, that you are the only person who can possibly heal Bella where she truly needs to be healed. Her heart" and then Sam was gone, leaving us alone.

"Wonder if you can even hear me. Your eyes are open, but your not really there behind them." I talk to her absently, not knowing what else to do to help her as I keep her hand between my own. "You remind me of this bird I found when I was a kid; it had broken both of it's wings and it would'nt eat or drink, as if life wasn't worth living if it couldn't fly in the sky. I tried to take care of it, but it didn't matter as long as it didn't want to live. It died before it's wings could ever heal."

"Please, Birdie, don't give up like it did. Let me help you, let me heal your broken wings so you can fly again." I begged her, ashamed by how pathetic I sounded. This wasn't like me, but I did want her to get better, I really did. Once again I was at a lost for words, so I just sat there, as helpless as she was before resting my head on the bed next to our enveloped hands, playing with her fingers and trying to thaw the cold from them.

I didn't even sense her move, until I felt her hand on my head, her fingers through my hair. When I looked up she was still staring at the ceiling but something inside of her recognized me, and physically reached out to me. It made me happy, like a dog getting his belly rubbed. I was pathetic, I knew, but I've never felt calmer than now under her touch. So I kept my head rested on the bed, her hand laid motionless on top of my head, my hair poking out through the spaces between her fingers.

I stayed there until I fell asleep, it was Charlie Swan who woke me up when he came to visit. He looked exhausted, as if he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep for an entire week. Which he probably hadn't with his daughter in the hospital and his bitch of an ex-wife always on his ass. I know Swan was my imprint, but I just wasn't a big fan of her mother at the moment with the grief she was giving the chief.

"Her hand, it was on you head...she moved?" he asked me, looking stunned and ready to cry.

"Yea" I answered swallowing as I moved to stand. I didn't want to let go of her hand, but I knew I had to. It was her dads time with her.

"I don't think she's done more than blink since she woke up. The doctor says she's catatonic. That the shock of him leaving and being attacked by that lion was too much for her to handle. She just receded in to herself." he explained, taking a seat in one of the chairs near the door instead of the one I was about to remove myself from, so I sat back down.

"I don't know what to do. Her heart is still beating, but the rest of her is just...dead. Her brain functions properly, her breathing in normal but she just isn't there. My daughter is gone." Oh fuck he starting to cry! What the hell do I do?

"No she isn't. She's still here. You just cant give up on her, she'll come around, I just know it. As her father your not _allowed _to give up on her, especially now!" I told him, surprising him and myself with my outburst.

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. It's wasn't my place to say-"

"No, you're right." Charlie told me, his eyes staring holes in to his shoes.

"I'm scared of how she'll be after she comes out of this...zombie state...I don't think she will ever be the same again, and it terrifies me to think that the girl who's going to come out of this wont be my daughter anymore." he said after a while of silence.

"_No one_ could go through what she did and come out the same person...but that doesn't make her any less your daughter." I told him, my eyes on the girl in the bed.

For a long minute, he just looked at me, his eyes squinted in thought.

"I remember you." shit! He's probably going to kick me out of the room now, tell me to never come and see his daughter again.

"I picked you up a few times for underage drinking and public indecency. You've seemed to come a long way, haven't heard any complaints about you. You turned yourself around, heard your helping out around the Rez with those other boys. And now...your watching over my girl better than me and you don't even know her." he smiled sadly then.

"It's not about knowing her, it's about what's right. To be honest, for a long time I had no idea what the right thing was." I had no idea why the hell I was telling him this, but I was.

"Your not a bad kid, you just had a lot of bad things happen to you, when you were too young. Your parents they-"

"Don't...Please, just don't bring them up." I asked, feeling a pang in my chest that I tried to keep buried down inside of me with my memories of them.

"Sorry." he said, bowing his head for a second before continuning to look on sorrowfully at Swan.

A silence fell then between us. It was awkward and uncomfortable, but I felt it would be even more so if either of us actually tried conversing with each other again. Soon enough I thought it was best that I left and gave Chief Swan time with his daughter.

"I should get going." I said, standing and laying Swans hand down on her stomach, my fingers slipping out from where I had tangled them in her other hand.

"Thank you." the Chief stands and pats my shoulder, taking my chair and Bella's hand. Smiling I leave the hospital with a sense of relief and a lighter feeling now that I've seen Bella.

**TBC**

_**Thank again everyone for reading, I'm really looking forward to hearing your feedback on this chapter. One of the best sensations in the world is when my phone buzz's with a new review or favorite alert. **_


	4. Chapter 4

_**It's been awhile. I finished my training and passed so I still have a job, and since I came back I've been trying to focus on falling into my schedule again and am working a lot of extra hours because I'm trying to save up to go to Scotland in August. And because I also have multiple fics I'm working on along with my novel it's hard to divide my time for each of them on my days off. But I'm trying my best.**_

_**So I want to thank everyone for the wait by updating the 4th chapter.**_

_**I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it.**_

**PAUL**

I started to visit Bella everyday, and every time there would be some sort of progress made like a twitch of her fingers, or a changed directions of her gaze. Though she never looked at me directly. It was like she was frozen and every time I sat next to her my heat thawed a little bit of her out. I started to weave her a promise bracelet(All the wolves made one for their imprint) and it gave me something to do when I visited Bella. I picked soft yarn in shades of turquoise, blue and purple, colors that I thought suited her and weaved them in a zig-zag pattern. After a week I had finished it, and I had to say I was damn proud with how well it came out. I was tying it around her boney ass wrist when I looked up and nearly fell out of my chair when I met eyes with her.

For the longest time I just sat there looking into her eyes. I wasn't even sure that I had blinked. This was the first time we looked each other in the eyes since I imprinted on her, and just like the first time the effect her big doe brown eyes had on me was just as strong as then. I felt my entire body relax under her stare as I sighed and smiled, curling my fingers around her hand to hold it as I boldly took my other and brought it to her face, only allowing my fingertips to touch her cheek, letting my heat soak into her cold skin.

"Hey there, Bambi." I say, looking into her eyes. She was just as skinny, and long limb as a deer, and everything about her just seemed to remind me of weak little fawn. I couldn't pick which nickname that fit her better 'birdie' or 'bambi'.

"When are you gonna come out of that head of yours, huh?" I asked with a smirk, my voice surprisingly gentle as I gave her hand a soft squeeze. She surprised me again when she squeezed back, very weekly, but I felt it.

"That's my girl, I knew you had some fight still left in you," I tell her with a shit eating grin when I see a spark in her eyes that hadn't been there before. Reclining in my seat while still holding her hand, I just look in to her eyes like the fucking sap I was turning into until she fell asleep.

"Paul?" I hadn't even realized I had fallen asleep myself until I heard my name and opened my eyes to see Sam standing in front of me.  
"Sorry, man, is it time for my shift already?" I yawned big and loud, stretching my aching muscles and listening to the joints of my bones crack as I rolled my neck and popped my shoulders back.

"Your shift started an hour ago, but knowing where you were, Jared's been covering for you." Sam explained..

"Aw, shit, he didn't have to do that. He should have just came and gotten me, damn it." I said, feeling like a complete asshole.

"It's not that big of a deal, spending time with Bella is sometimes more important. If you really feel bad about it then you can still take the rest of the night patrolling like you should be doing right now." Sam smirked, something that was uncommon to see since he always had a stick up his ass.  
"I think I'll do that, I could use a good run. Being around her too long messes with my head." I tell him and stand up from my chair, making my way to the door of the room without looking back.  
"You've made her a bracelet. Does that mean you've finally accepted the imprint?" Sam turns and stops me on my way out after noticing the bracelet on her wrist.

"Hardly, I was just bored as shit and it gave me something to fucking do." I scoff before walking out, and I could hear Sam sigh behind me and I just knew he was shaking his head at me. Fucking asshole, thinks he knows fucking everything.

Getting out of the hospital I made a run for the tree's quickly taking off my clothes and tying them to my leg before phasing.

_'Jared, where are you? I'm taking over.' _I let him know, trying to find his location by his thoughts.

_'I'm near Bella's house, I thought I smelled something, but it was just from Charlie throwing some stuff from the leaches that he had found hidden beneath the floorboard in her room. Don't know why the freak would hide it' _There was a growl in the voice of his thoughts.

_'Who the fuck cares as long as it's gone now. I don't want her to have anything that was from him or could even remind her of the fucking leach.' _I told him with a huff, my fur bristling in annoyance.

_'How's Bella doing?' _Jared asked, concerned.

_'She looked me in the eye's today' _I told him, showing him my memory of the experience.

_'That's great, man. I'm so happy for you, that's some real improvement right there' _I wasnt sure if it was because of what we saw, or the fact that she was my imprint, but Jared took a genuine interest in Bella's health. It was a but annoying really.

_'I guess' _if I was in my human body I would have shrugged, but did the wolf equivalent by shaking the fur near my shoulder.

_'What the hell, man, shouldn't you be more excited?' _I growled, my jaws snapping. I didn't need him to tell me how I should feel. I was getting enough of that shit from the imprint.

_'I'll be excited when there's actually life behind her eyes.' _I growled at him before running off to run my patrol.

My claws dug into the earth beneath me, the tree's a blur as I raced my own shadow. I tried to imagine, Bella with life in her eyes and a smile lighting her face as she stood under the bright sun. Her mahogany hair was glossy with health, framing her face perfectly. Happy and healthy, the way she should be, that's how I wanted to see her. I dreamed of her at night, full of life and fire, and all attitude in my arms. It was fucking torture when I woke up, went to the hospital, and saw her practically dead in that white bed. I just wished I knew how to help her get better faster.

Once my shift was finished I quickly checked in with Sam real quick before making my way back home. It was late when I got in, close to one, and I didn't expect anyone to be awake so I made sure to be real quiet when I came in so I didn't wake my parents. I decided to stop in the kitchen to see what was left over from dinner when the lights turned on. I froze.

Shit!

"I think we need to talk, Paul." I had the worst luck in the entire world, it was official.

Turning around I met the suspicious and concerned gaze of my uncle. The man who had taken me in after my parents untimely death and did his best to raise me alongside with his wife. The two had become parents to me, and they would always deserve so much better than me. I could never make up for the shit I put them through.

"Just tell me it's not starting all over again, and I'll go back to bed without asking any questions." he said, his voice gruff with sleep, the coarse hairs of his beard sticking out at funny angles, tousled from sleep.

"It's not, Uncle Mark, I promise. What's going on right now with me, it's not like before, I swear to you." and it's the truth. Turning around, I shuffle through the left overs until I find a Tupperware with the left-over lasagna from two days ago.

"Is this about Chief Swan's daughter? I didn't think the two of you had ever met before what happened to her. You've been visiting the hospital everyday-" he asked.  
"It's not like that," I told him, quickly trying to shut the door of that conversation.

"Then what's going on, you've started to stay out all night again, and there is no way your sleeping overnight at the hospital, they would have kicked you out after visiting hours." he took a seat, making it obvious he wasn't going back to bed until he got some answers from me and his worries were eased.

I couldn't tell him the truth, I wasn't allowed. But I had to give him some type of explanation as to why I was gone all night if I wasn't at the hospital. Uncle Mark was a kind man, but he wasn't a stupid one. I could brush this all off and go straight to my room without another word, but I had been cruel enough to him already in the past for me to ignore him again. I had to think of something, anything to hold him up for awhile and take away some of his worry.

Anything...Anything at all...come on, Paul, think. Even if it's a lie just say something to him. I thought. But then he began to talk and I realized I might not have to say much at all as he came to his own conclusions.

"What happened to that girl was tragic, but it was not your fault, Paul. What you, Sam and Jared have created is amazing. You help so many people and this village, especially me and Kelly are so proud of you. But some things are just out of your control," he told me, putting one hand on my shoulder.

It amazed me the difference in our sizes. It wasn't that Uncle Mark was a small man, we we're both 6'2, but compared to my massive girth of muscle he seemed so thin. He wasn't particularly skinny, but he wasn't as broad as I was and wasn't particularly muscular, with a small pot belly from eating so much of Aunt Kelly's delicious home cooking.  
Even before my first phasing and I began to show signs of it, I had already worked out in my free time so that I could attract girls. My room was filled with gym equipment, and I worked out on a daily basis's in hopes of increasing my muscle mass. When I changed, it only added to my already ripped body. Compared to Sam and Jared, I was the more muscular of our pack and took immense pride in my body. The way I was now, it would barely take anything to crush my uncle, not that I would ever do such a thing of course. Though sometimes the fact that I could, the mere strength I held scared me.

"You can pretend all you want that this doesn't bother you, you can get as mad as you want, as long as your letting it out through a healthy outlet. Just tell me your not out their doing anything stupid that I don't know about yet." said Mark. I could feel the light tremble of his fingers as they gripped my shoulder, and I made sure to look him in the eyes when I spoke to him.

"I'm not, I promise." I told him. Besides it was pretty impossible for me to go back down that road with a body that couldn't even let me get fucking wasted. Most of the stupid shit I did was because I was drunk, and that was impossible for me anymore.

"Then that's good enough for me. Goodnight, Paul." with a pat and a smile, he went back to his room, the door closing behind him with a soft click.

Well, that went much better than I thought. Shrugging I grabbed the container of left overs and threw it in the microwave for a few minutes, deciding not to sweat over what just happened to much. I stop the microwave before the last second so it wont beep and wake my aunt, before grabbing a fork and making my way to my room at the back of the house.

With my hands full with the leftovers and a glass of water, I nudge my door open, glad that I had forgotten to shut it closed all the way last time. Once I'm in, I kick the door gently behind him so that it doesn't slam. Once I'm in I put my food down on the top of my dresser and start stripping out of my grass stained clothes, a few twigs and leaves have stuck to them while they had been tied to my leg. Throwing them in my hamper I take out a pair of sweat shorts and slip them on. Grabbing the remote I turn the small television I had on. Throwing the remote on the bed I grab my drink and food and flop down on top of the covers and recline back on the pillows, crossing my ankles.

Taking off the lid of the Tupperware I shovel out a piece of the lasagna with my fork, after taking a bite I follow with a sip of water as _Archer _comes on. The animation might be shit, but it was fucking funny as hell.

I wasn't sure when I fell asleep, but I knew I was dreaming because Swan was suddenly in my room. In my bed.

I really couldn't get a fucking break, not even in my sleep.

**TBC**

_**Again, sorry for the wait.**_

_**I look forward to your reviews.**_


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